Martin Keown raved about West Ham United defender Craig Dawson during our FA Cup clash with Southampton tonight.
The Hammers traveled to St Mary’s to take on the Saints in the fifth round of the FA Cup.
Read also: Report claims Nikola Vlasic transfer fee could be scrapped
West Ham have not won a trophy since 1980 so unsurprisingly, the London Stadium faithful are absolutely desperate to see some silverware.
You could say the same about Southampton fans. They’ve had to wait four years longer than us since they last won a trophy!
So tonight’s game was obviously a massive one for both sides with a place in the quarter-finals of the FA Cup on offer.
Southampton took the lead midway through the first-half before Michail Antonio levelled up the scores early on in the second-half.
Dawson, who had a great game overall on the night, then gave away a penalty with around half an hour left and James Ward-Prowse duly slotted home from the spot.
The game petered out and we ended up losing the game 3-1 after Armando Broja scored the Saints’ third. Huge disappointment all round.
Martin Keown praises one West Ham player after FA Cup clash with Southampton
In spite of our defeat at St Mary’s, there were a couple of decent performers at least.
And Keown took time to praise big Daws, when speaking during BBC’s live coverage of tonight’s game (Tuesday March 2nd, 8:41pm):
“He came on loan initially. He’s been outstanding. In both boxes, he’s outstanding.”
Keown is spot on. Dawson has been truly outstanding for West Ham.
The 31-year-old originally joined the Hammers on a season-long loan from Watford in October 2020 at a cost of just £1 million. West Ham then made his move to the London Stadium a permanent one for a further £3 million in the summer of 2021 (The Sun).
£4 million for the no-nonsense, tough-tackling centre-back now seems like an absolute bargain.
He is so much more than a cult hero…he’s a crucial player for West Ham now.
And David Moyes deserves a lot of credit for ignoring fan pressure to sign him 16 months ago.
Read also:
Atalanta chief has just made a quite stunning West Ham Europa League claim
Report: West Ham want to sign £8.3m Bayern Munich ace with 12 goals, 6 assists this term
29-year-old was sensational against Wolves and proved how vital he is to West Ham
Brilliant post-Wolves video proves exactly why we must back Moyes to sign the right players